I shall never forget, however, the difficulty I had to execute one of her orders. She was giving a ball to their Majesties, at which, punctually at midnight, dominoes were to appear in a prearranged set. I was asked to secure these mysterious apparitions. But this proved a far from easy task. For not only had I to find ladies who were witty, amusing and sprightly, but also those who would be willing to deprive themselves of being seen as invited guests, in order to pass through the rooms as apparitions--carefully masked. Now one of my candidates had the misfortune to possess very ugly prominent egg-like eyes, "but"--thought I--"there is the mask, it will conceal all sorts of imperfections." Nevertheless, I thought {76} it prudent to warn her. "Remember," said I, "the orders are that identity must be _strictly_ concealed." "Oh, that is quite impossible in my case," she proudly replied, "for my bright and almost oriental eyes are well known and would certainly be recognised by everyone." So I dropped the oriental-eyed creature and secured a substitute. The Emperor assured his aunt afterwards that he had greatly enjoyed her party. The Grand Duchess, as well as her other nephew--the Grand Duke Constantine Nicolaevitch--was devoted to the Emperor's reforms, especially to his scheme concerning the abolition of Serfdom in Russia. That plan, no doubt, was of tremendous magnitude. It not only granted personal freedom to forty-eight millions of serfs, but half the number of them had to become freeholders. That reform, by the by, was carried out in two years' time. Was it not a miraculous rapidity? There was another detail of this measure, which was really a very noble and grand one; we, the nobility of all the country, have lost, through that measure, nearly half of all we possessed. An important fact, no doubt, but I never heard any indignation, protest or murmur evoked by that change. Everybody felt its urgency, and a feeling of justice prevailed with all the others. Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman was very much interested in that question, and plied me with many questions. Not being able to satisfy his curiosity during our meetings at Carlsbad, I promised to {77} procure from Russia the desired information, and did so eventually on my arrival at London. It was at the Grand Duchess Helen's villa at Carlsbad, where we were invited every evening during her stay, that I met the Campbell-Bannermans for the first time. Those were immensely interesting evenings, when one met only people worth knowing.